TheThriftArchives: Munchy Monday: Irish Trinity Cake

Last weekend Rick and I attended the first night of our gourmet supper club and we were charged with making a dessert. I'm not overly confident when it comes to desserts, mostly because I always feel like I'm missing a special piece of cooking equipment, like springform pans or a stand mixer. So, when I saw this recipe on The Golden Yolk, I thought we'll see if I can do this! I mean, it is double-layered!

But for the confection-challenged, this cake is easy and just as delicious as it sounds! And with Saint Patrick's Day coming up, this dessert was both festive and fancy. I've seen this cake called an Irish Car Bomb Cake or an Irish Trinity Cake (Stout, Whiskey & Baileys, get it?) You choose which name you like better!

Here's the skinny:

Cake:
1 cup Guinness (Any other kind of stout will do)
1 cup unsalted butter (I used Kerrygold Irish Butter.)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Filling:
8 oz bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1-2 tsp Irish whiskey ( I used Jameson's, but you use what you have. I wanted to buy something that we might drink or serve later and growing up, my dad always refused to buy/drink any whiskey from Northern Ireland. Jameson's is the one brand that always stuck in my head as 'safe'. Silly, maybe. But I'll let you try to tell Roger Walker that!)

Frosting:
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3-4 tbsp Irish Cream (I used Bailey's because it's the best. Emmet's isn't fit to shine Bailey's shoes, in my opinion)

*Unsweetened cocoa powder for sifting (Optional)

Time to Put this Together:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch cake pans.

In a saucepan, simmer the stout and butter over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and mix until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Nothing smells better than this simmering on your stove. Seriously, nothing. Bath & Bodyworks should make THIS candle!

Cakes:
In a large bowl, combine all other dry ingredients (the flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 tsp salt). In another bowl, whisk the eggs and sour cream and then beat in the chocolate-stout mixture until combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients. Pour batter into the cake pans and bake for 15 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 300 and bake until a toothpick in the center comes out clean, about 15 more minutes. The cakes smell amazing straight out of the oven! You just wait!

Filling:
Melt the chocolate- I used a double boiler method with a glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, but I suspect you could use a microwave if you'd like. Add in the cream, butter, and whiskey and mix until silky smooth. Allow to cool until thick. I popped mine in the fridge for about a half hour & tha worked splendidly. You may have to watch your husband like a hawk to make sure he isn't in the fridge every 5 minutes, dragging his fingers through the filling. Not speaking from experience here or anything.

Frosting:
I made a double batch of frosting, because my cakes came out of the pans a little rough and I wanted to make sure I could cement them together with frosting if need be. I had some left-overs after finishing the cake. See above comment about my reluctance to do fancy desserts. There is precedence. Beat butter until light and fluffy & then add in your powdered sugar. Beat in Irish Cream. I used 12-13 tbls of Bailey's. I went entirely by taste, so be sure to taste your frosting as you go along. You may feel like you need more/less powdered sugar or more/less liqueur. Choose your own adventure on this one.

For the final touch, I added some sifted cocoa powder over the top of the cake. If I was making this for Saint Patrick's Day I might cut out a four-leaf clover stencil and sift the cocoa over that for a fun effect.

It should be said that every time I make a cake, my goal is to make something reminiscent to the cakes in Pollyanna.